Mariam Aqubardia (Georgian, born 1991) 'Man Waiting for a Bus'

Mariam Aqubardia (Georgian, born 1991) 'Man Waiting for a Bus' signed and dated '2025' (verso) oil on canvas 90 x 90cm (35 7/16 x 35 7/16in). Footnotes: Provenance The Why Not Gallery, Tbilisi Mariam Aqubardia (b. 1991, Gali) is a Georgian artist who graduated from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, earning her Bachelor's degree in Painting in 2013 and her Master's degree in 2017. Mariam's artistic style is rooted in academic traditions, reflecting on realism, as well as diverting from it, to transform her subjects into melancholic, dreamlike, and often vague images. Her paintings are primarily narrative-based, reflecting personal memories and experiences from her childhood in the occupied region of Gali. The focus of her work is on abandoned spaces—deserted cities, burnt kindergartens, hospitals, and sanatoriums that once sheltered displaced people. These remnants of war form the basis of Mariam's stories, highlighting the struggles of those affected by conflict. Her art blends the harsh realities of human suffering with the beauty of nature—nature that surrounded her in the subtropical landscape of her youth, filled with citrus trees, cacti, and palm trees. The human figures in her work, with their weary, distant gazes, stand in contrast to the airy, triumphant nature that has overtaken the ruins. Mariam's work has been exhibited in Georgia and internationally. Some of her key exhibitions include the 2025 'Autumn Group Exhibition' at Martin Brown Contemporary gallery in Sydney, Australia, the 2023 Istanbul Art Fair, in 2023 a group exhibition and cultural exchange with local artists, focusing on the challenges faced by our countries, held in Agra, India. In 2023, she was featured as one of 'Harper's Bazaar Germany's' Artists of the Year. Other significant exhibitions include the 2022 Dubai Art Fair, her solo show 'Painted Walls Create the Illusion of Reality' in 2022, and 'Sometimes Water Burst out of Dried up Fountains' at The Why Not Gallery in 2021. Her work has been featured in 'Art and Freedom', supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Tbilisi (2020), the Tbilisi Online Biennale (2020), and 'Personal Structures', a parallel event at the 57th Venice Art Biennale (2017). Mariam has also exhibited at Phoenix Gallery in New York (2016). In 2019, her project 'Citrus Trees Covered Against the Frost' won the Heinrich Böll Foundation's 'Woman of Bauhaus' competition and was installed in Tbilisi at Station Square. In 2020, Mariam and her husband created Georgia's first indie comic about internally displaced persons, which was published in the Berlin-based magazine ZTSCRPT. Mariam's works are held in private collections in Georgia, France, Switzerland, and Germany. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * * VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing